The era of Spanish technical capacity is over. Welcome to the era of German ironing. The Champions League semi-finals in Portugal would likely face two German groups opposed to two French groups, but a year after German manager Jurgen Klopp took Liverpool to the European crown, 3 of the clubs of the last 4 are led by German coaches. With a similar philosophy, while the exception, Rudi García del Lyon, is a coach who has traditionally favored anything similar. He has recently been forced to adapt to circumstances.
Tuesday’s semi-final between PSG and RB Leipzig is a clash between two of the new wave of German coaches, but it’s also a new and even newer match. This is, as we feel more and more, the truth of football: a club founded in 1970 and assumed by the state of Qatar in 2011, unlike one founded in 2009 and controlled as the centerpiece of a global network of clubs through the corporate beverage power Red Taurus.
However, their approaches have been very different. PSG spent a lot and had wonderful luck at the national level, before faltering in the big European matches – this is their first Champions League semi-final since 1994-95 – cancelled several times through an unbalanced team that seemed surprised to face capable matches. to challenge him. Leipzig, for its part, has focused on creating young players who operate according to a non-unusual philosophy. If it hadn’t been the way he broke the spirit, but not the letter, of German asset regulations, it might even be popular.
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That’s why Thomas Tuchel’s appointment to PSG was so important in 2018. After managers whose intuition was to appease the big names, he has a reputation for being stinky and, in both Mainz and Dortmund, pursued a sense of team ingrained in the hard press. PSG has been much more balanced in the Champions League this season, and has inspired opponents of Real Madrid in the organizational stage. Neymar’s functionality against Atalanta was one of the mature highs he has given in a big game. Despite the two missed opportunities in the first half, he persevered, fell too deep and sought to do too much, it is true, but he never succumbed to petulance that has characterized him so much in complicated matches over the years.
However, two things can count against PSG. First, that the quality of the rest of the French championship makes you not used to being challenged. He was shaken by Atalanta’s urgency in the quarter-finals, in fact in the first half, and Leipzig, who has had a longer break since the end of his season, did not tire as Italy did. Secondly, what is no stranger, the PSG has a habit of suffocating on the great European occasion.
PSG also lost Edinson Cavani and Thomas Meunier, any of whom left thanks to the strange regulations that allowed players to go to new clubs or have their contracts expire according to their original terms as the season progresses. If Kylian Mbappé, who controlled 30 decisive minutes against Atalanta despite a quick comeback from an ankle injury, has compatibility to play a more complete role, it might not be too disruptive and certainly the net loss for the PSG is less than that of Leipzig. Array who has already noticed that his most sensible goalscorer, Timo Werner, is leaving for Chelsea. Julian Nagelsmann follows the same culture as Tuchel and demonstrated his tactical versatility against Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals. In three games with Tuchel, for whom he played for the Augsburg reserve team, Nagelsmann has not yet won, all of whom have arrived as Hoffenheim’s manager opposed to Dortmund in Tuchel.
Hansi Flick of Bayern Munich is almost ten years older than Tuchel, who is more than a decade older than Nagelsmann, but having waited his time as an assistant coach, he still feels fresh. Bayern, who are in a hat-trick to repeat their 2013 feat, have won 27 of their last 28 games and, by demolishing Barcelona, have shown how devastating it can be in the future. However, there were occasional symptoms of concern in the back that Barcelona was able to explode before the game escaped, which can give Lyon breath on Wednesday. It was a redevelopment of the 2010 semi-final that represented Lyon’s last appearance so deeply in the competition.
By getting rid of Juventus and Manchester City, Garcia’s team proved that they were capable of a collective defensive effort while dangerously beating Memphis Depay, Karl Toko Ekambi and Maxwel Cornet. Houssem Aouar excelled in midfield, with applause from Pep Guardiola and Kevin De Bruyne, 22, after the quarter-finals.
The money, which ultimately has a tendency to dictate football in those days, would recommend that the last is Bayern against PSG, a clash of two superclubs. Nagelsmann and Garcia, however, have the brain to cause a shock. Win, it’s a season that confirms an uptrend for two or three years. A Spanish game rooted in the technicality has been surpassed by a German game that presses in the same way, but with much greater physics.
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